12.23.09

Edward Deming’s 14 points for Education and Educational Technology Pt. I

Posted in General at 12:21 am by Travis

By now, you should know that I am an advocate of the teaching and guidance of Edward Deming as a road map for true educational reform.  You should also know by now that I am not a fan of heavy corporate influence into education and educational reform.  Since we seem to continue  down this road, I thought it would be good to align Deming’s principles of manufacturing with that of education.  After all, his methods have made Toyota the  number one automaker in the world since we love to judge success by numbers.  I have to agree with others on this one question.  How do we turn over our schools to some of the people who almost destroyed the financial system with some of the same principles that they want to use on our schools?

Edward Deming’s 14 Points.

1.”Create constancy of purpose toward improvement of product (student learning) and service(edification of society ), with the aim to become competitive ( in the global market) and to stay in (the) business (of educating and preserving society), and to provide (candidates for) jobs.

If the teacher, as the reformers put it, is the single most important part of the child’s achievement in school, then the vision and the articulation of that vision shared among all stakeholders is the single most important factor in educational reform from leadership.  Where are you going, how you propose to get there, are the other people on this journey aware of this and what do you do after you get there?  The vision is the guiding principle for what is to take place in the district, school and classroom while involving the community.

The problem is that this is especially true for educational technology.  Many school leaders are so removed from ed tech since they have IT staff and/or educational technology specialist in their schools.  Many administrators think, “These people handle all of the ‘technical stuff’ while I focus on student achievement.”  Wrong!  In the 21st Century, with 21st Century learners and 21st Century mandates, effective learning and achievement (there’s a difference) can not be attained by avoiding the importance of technology inside the curriculum.  Technology must be seen as important as any other learning strategy that those highly paid consultants hash and rehash for us every summer and fall.

I said technology in the curriculum, not just shuffling students off to a computer lab for drill and practice work.  Many people in education and the community see technology from the aspect of what I call “The Matrix Effect”.  This is taken from the scene in The Matrix where Neo learns kung fu by just plugging in while the operator uploads the information into his brain.  This is what I think subconsciously happens when we think of computers in school and computer labs.  We teach all of the learning strategies from the consultants then we take them to the computer lab and transfer that into their brains with drill and practice.

Once the technology is seen as equally important, we have to ask ourselves, “How do we measure its effectiveness and how do we change it, improve on it and what does the next level of progress look like?  The visioning process is a tedious one but well worth the time and effort.  Right now, many schools are operating with a wild west mentality.  Technology is being acquired with no real sense for purpose because it was not part of the visioning process, no one can be sure if what is being acquired will really work.  What’s worse is there is no way to measure it.  It could be too much or not enough.

I have been looking over the NCES report from their survey of Educational Technology in public schools.

There is a  portion of the survey  that reflects the  “Percentage distribution of public school districts reporting whether they employ an individual responsible for educational technology leadership full or part time, by district characteristics: Fall 2008″

• 17 % of schools survey had no one in a leadership position for educational technology.
• 32% of schools surveyed had someone part-time.

When you look at the numbers from other categories, the numbers are more disturbing.

• Although school districts of less that 2500 students had 42% of people full time in ed tech leadership, 21% did not.
• While 36% of Rural schools had someone full time, 23% did not.

The poverty concentration reveals an evolution of the digital divide.  With all of our schools being connected to the internet, many still do not have enough computers to take advantage of this.  What’s worse is educational leadership in these schools.  According to the survey, of the schools with 20% or more of students in poverty, 47% have someone full time, 33% have some one part-time, and 20% have no one at all.  This means that over 50% of the schools surveyed that  have 20% or more poverty have either no one or someone part-time in ed tech leadership.  Now some will argue that something is better than nothing, I disagree.  With all of the challenges that come with schools in high poverty, a part-time tech leader could be like having no one at all because  they may not have the time, nor have the adequate resources to provide quality PD on curriculum integration.

Remember, constancy of purpose.  Constantly defining and refining the purpose for what we are doing.

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